Overview

“It was an ordinary dawn on an unremarkable day. Lying in bed, I could see a grassy semi-circle of garden through the windows. For a crazed moment, the scene appeared soaked in shades of yellow. Perhaps that’s why, bewildered, I sat up, rubbed final ounces of sleep from my eyes and swung my legs over the bed. Then I walked outside to look for Kabir.”

The gift of an old camera transforms Asha’s life. Parents and home; best friends Nishita, Meethi, Melana; the intriguing Kabir – she leaves them all to spend a year in a Swiss mountain village, learning to see the world through a lens.

There is a price to pay. Back home in Delhi, life has moved on; her three friends have wandered in new directions, her father is ill, and Kabir has found new purpose in Assam.

In the background, a country too changes shape; the Emergency locks India into strife, the riots of 1984 unleash a dormant savagery. Bombay becomes the target of terrorists. Amidst the chaos, Asha must find the threads of a new beginning that will once again take her away from the land she loves.